Question Thread

[NezumiNeko]

I keep having all these question, that I wonder about, so I'm gonna start a thread for all questions. Add your own.... yay! Question thread.

1. How much is 20%. How much fruit/veggies should I give daily that would make up 20% of their diet, I never know.
2. If I made something out of pleather, would it be dangerous? It's a plastic coating over cloth. It really doesn't resemble leather, but it's so shiny!
3. Onigiri just bit me hard. Was it beacuse she just woke up and was grumpy? She seemed like she wanted my flesh, like when I poked the side of the fleece cube, it was like she wanted to get to me. 0.0 she's been so sweet lately, and now BAM!

I have more, but I forget.

 

[jorats]

That's a good idea having a Question Thread. Keeps everything together.

1. How much is 20%. How much fruit/veggies should I give daily that would make up 20% of their diet, I never know.

I give my rats two piece of vegetables a day, they have 2 to 3 blocks of HT a day and then Oxbow as they please, so I'm sure that the veggies are only a small part of their diet. Remember that a rat's stomach is very small, smaller than a grape.

2. If I made something out of pleather, would it be dangerous? It's a plastic coating over cloth. It really doesn't resemble leather, but it's so shiny!

I'm not sure pleather is ok... I did some googling and if your pleather is made from pvc, then my first thoughts would be no, it's not good. PVC is a very toxic plastic.

3. Onigiri just bit me hard. Was it beacuse she just woke up and was grumpy? She seemed like she wanted my flesh, like when I poked the side of the fleece cube, it was like she wanted to get to me. 0.0 she's been so sweet lately, and now BAM!

I bet you just woke her up and scared her.

 

[NezumiNeko]

I think she was scared and grumpy. She's so sweet at night! Stupid mood swings.

 

[CardboardCastles]

PVC is a very toxic plastic.

Is the PVC piping different? If not, I just bought a bunch of stuff I can't use :sad3:

 

[jorats]

Here's what I found about pvc piping.

http://www.thegreenguide.com/doc/98/pipe

 

[henry's_mum]

this thread is GREAT!

I've got a question, Where did you all buy your scales, and roughly how much did they cost?
I'm looking for a digital scale, ,and i'm not sure the best place to buy one...

thanks,

 

[jorats]

Mine is a postal scale bought at Costco for $17. It works great.

 

[LA]

Great Idea:

As for the biting and being moody. I find that my Olivia is much more willing to come out in the morning as opposed to the evening... not sure why.

Scale: My husband works at the Source and bought ours for $16. It looks really small but we put a box on top of it and stick the rats in and we are good to go. I don't think you need anything fancy.

 

[NezumiNeko]

Yuki's smelling is squeaky. Yeah, that makes not sense, but her normal breathing is silent, but when she sniffs something it's slightly squeaky. Should I worry? I'm good at worrying.

 

[jorats]

Yuki's smelling is squeaky. Yeah, that makes not sense, but her normal breathing is silent, but when she sniffs something it's slightly squeaky. Should I worry? I'm good at worrying.

I'd keep an eye (ear) on it... if she starts doing it all the time, I'd get her checked.

 

[NezumiNeko]

She doesn't do it in the cage, but when I take her out and she gets excited and sniffy, her breathing is slightly squeaky.

 

[jorats]

It's hard to say... you don't want to jump the gun either and put her on meds if she really doesn't need it but then you don't want it to progress if it's really something serious. If you are really concerned and you have a good rat savvy vet, I'd bring her in.

 

[NezumiNeko]

Besides that she seems healthy, I think I'm gonna trust my gut. Also, my mom would get annoyed if we took them to the vet and they weren't sick. They have all the traits of a healthy rat.... maybe it's the dust in Carefresh.

 

[jorats]

You could try removing all the carefresh and see if that stops it.

 

[NezumiNeko]

What other bedding should I use, or just fleece? My rats like their bedding though...

 

[jorats]

I would use only fleece for now, just to see if it helps. If it doesn't, you can go back to it.

 

[trillium]

Hiya

I use yesterday's news for litter and cloth/fleece as well as paper towel for bedding. I change the last two a lot -- at least once a day and often twice for areas where they sleep/pee. They also love to drag in the torn up cardboard paper towel roll to add to their beds and shred. We go through lots of them...

 

[NezumiNeko]

I found a couple bricks of this from when I used to have hermit crabs. (then I got my rats, and the fact that they didn't love me kinda ruined them.) http://www.petco.com/product/10813/Zoo- ... trate.aspx Do you think it'd be safe to use and make like a digging box for my rats? Also, if I made one with 'treasures', do you know of any safe, small items besides food I could put in there.